Ancient rites

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33995, 8 November 1975, Page 10

Ancient rites

Barrow, Pyramid and Tomb. By Leslie V. Grinsell. Hodder and Stoughton. 240 pp. Illustrations and appendix. N.Z. price $14.35. A curator of archaeology and history in England, Mr Grinsell has spent nearly half a century studying the funerary archaeology of Egypt, the Mediterranean, and the British Isles This is a book of fairly specialised interests — the funerary practices of antiquity associated with the burial of the dead in all its manifestations, including human and animal sacrifice and the various beliefs surrounding the journey to the after-life. The second section comprises a rather scholarly and wide-ranging discussion of the author’s "favourite tomb-groups,” described in some detail. This study is really a manual for readers already familiar with funerary customs and tombs — ranging from Egyptian pyramids, Etruscan cemeteries, and sepulchral caves in the Balearic Islands to the cruciform passage-graves of the British Isle*. .